All My Children Online -- Episode 1

Was David blamed for the shooting at the Chandler Mansion?

Original Airing: Monday, April 29th, 2013

Flashback – The first time I saw All My Children I was home sick from school. Donna Tyler had amnesia because she thought Chuck and Tara were having an affair. Brooke was dating Dan Kennicott but was hot for college professor, Mark Dalton. Mark was hot for Boutique owner Ellen Dalton and Ellen’s daughter, Devon, was pregnant by her boyfriend, Wally. And Myrtle Fargate worked for Ellen.

The online version begins five years after JR hid in the secret room at the ChandlerMansion and started shooting. There was a scene of what I’m guessing was someone fighting with JR and trying to stop him, but they didn’t show who it was.

The episode opens with Brooke having a nightmare about that night five years ago. Adam wakes her and asks her to marry him. Adam, apparently, comes in and out of PineValley, but no longer lives there. He also asks Brooke to do something for him, saying he knows she’ll never betray him; which to me is foreshadowing for Brooke to somehow betray him. Or maybe that’s how he’ll see it, even if it isn’t a betrayal.

AJ gets visibly upset when people talk about what happened five years ago and suggests everyone forget about it. AJ seems to be best friends with Miranda and he may have more feelings for her than just a friend. She see him naked and isn’t all flustered over it. She is, however, flustered over a boy at school named Hunter Morrison.

Pete Cortlandt comes back to town grown-up. He apparently started his own company out in California. Opal has summoned him home to try and save Cortlandt Electronics. He doesn’t seem too interested. However, when he meets a girl named Celia, he does seemed interested in possibly staying in PineValley.

At the hospital someone has been laying in a coma for the last five years. It seems likely the person was a victim of the shooting at ChandlerMansion. The face isn’t revealed, but I hope the person doesn’t turn out to be Erica. I’d actually prefer that Erica Kane didn’t make it to this new version of All My Children. The character just hasn’t aged very well.

Griffin also brays about how David is in prison for manslaughter and he’ll never get out. He also seems to be suggesting that Cara had some part of it. Brother Griffin would probably mess his panties if he knew Cara was has a hot flashback of having sex with David, so it seems even after five years she still has feelings for him.

As it turns out Griffin is wrong. As he’s braying about David spending the rest of his life in prison, David is getting out. It seems like people believe it was David that shot up the ChandlerMansion. He visits the cemetery and visits a gravestone, whose name isn’t revealed, saying he spent all these years in jail and he’s returning to PineValley and there’s going to be hell to pay.

Meanwhile, Jesse wants to arrange a surprise for Angie and arranges for their daughter to come to PineValley. Unfortunately, she doesn’t show up and may be in trouble. When Jesse calls her cell phone up, someone steps on the phone.

Finally, Dixie looks sadly at a picture of her and Tad when they were young. Was Tad one of the people that died in the shooting? Or could he be the one laying in a coma in the hospital?

The best part of the show was David Hayward. His story, so far, is the most interesting. We all know it was JR that was behind what happened at the ChandlerMansion, so just how did David get blamed for it? David has always had a thing for Dixie. Did he take the blame for JR to protect Dixie from the truth? Was it JR whose grave David visited? Did David try to stop JR and try to save everyone and ended up being blamed for what happened? And just what part did Cara have in helping put David in prison for a crime he may not have committed?

There’s also the whole mystery of who has been lying in a coma for the last five years. It isn’t Bianca, since Miranda mentioned her, but it doesn’t sound like she’s doing too well. Perhaps Marissa was killed in the shooting and she still hasn’t gotten over it.

The good thing is the show is mixing older core characters with all these young newbies. The show had a balance to it. It’ll be interesting to see if the show flourishes now it’s free of the ABC/Disney management team.